Going into the Backstory

Sometimes when you’re writing a novel, things just begin to get… stuck. You aren’t quite sure where your characters are going. Maybe you don’t know how they’ll grow, or what is holding them back from doing so. It’s at times like this that it’s best to go back to the...

Your Character’s Wound

I was so surprised last week when I realized that I had never written about a character’s wounds! I learned about this concept from Michael Hauge who speaks about character wounds in his incredible talk on “The Hero’s Two Journeys”.  The...

What you need to get started writing your novel

A few weeks ago I talked about my analog toolbox. One of the most important worksheets I use is my “When Starting a Book” Worksheet (it could probably use a better name, but at least that one is descriptive). This worksheet contains the bare minimum you should know...

Peopling Your Story

(My apologies: I don’t have the audio version of this post this week. If you’d like one, please contact me and I’ll create one and post it. Thanks for your understanding.) How many people are in your books? To write a novel involves creating...

Go Ahead, Be Mean

You have worked very hard to make your main characters likeable… lovable, even. You’ve developed them into complete human beings in your mind and, hopefully, in your novel as well. But then… you’ve got to be mean to them! You’ve got to destroy their wonderful (or even...